Chief details ‘bad week’ as SFPD investigates series of killings

Police Chief Bill Scott offered new details Wednesday evening in a spate of homicides that left three people dead in a matter of days including a 15-year-old boy.

The first victim, killed after midnight Sunday in South of Market, was leaving a nightclub near Bonifacio and Mabini streets with another person when two people demanded their wallets, according to Scott.

The other person started to run away and heard three gunshots, Scott said. The person then saw a car speed away and the victim, identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office as 20-year-old Richard Ponce, on the ground.

In the second homicide, 15-year-old Day’von Hann was shot and killed shortly after midnight Monday at 24th and Capp streets in the Mission.

Scott said police responding to the scene pursued a suspect vehicle onto Interstate Highway 280, but the vehicle got away. At some point in the chase, Scott said a passenger fired a gunshot out of the vehicle at an unknown target.

Hann died at the scene. He is remembered fondly by mentors as a youth member of the anti-violence group United Playaz.

The third homicide victim, 44-year-old Eric Wilson, was killed in a double shooting at around 11 p.m. Tuesday night near Jennings Street and Yosemite Avenue in Bayview.

The other man who was shot was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, according to Scott. He is expected to survive.

“We don’t know at this time what the motive was for the shooting,” Scott said. “There’s a lot of investigation that we have to do on this one.”

Scott said no arrests have been made in any of the three homicides and called on the public to come forward with information.

San Francisco has had 23 reported homicides so far this year.

“We had a busy week and a bad week in terms of homicides,” Scott said. “We’ve lost some ground.”

But The City had just as many killings at this point in 2018, according to the chief.

Overall, Scott said violent crime is down by 15 percent so far this year in San Francisco, including a 19 percent drop in gun violence.